CVE-2014-0196: Linux Kernel Race Condition Vulnerability

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. Actively exploited: in CISA KEV since 2023-05-12. EPSS: 22.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The n_tty_write function in drivers/tty/n_tty.c in the Linux kernel through 3.14.3 does not properly manage tty driver access in the "LECHO & !OPOST" case, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and system crash) or gain privileges by triggering a race condition involving read and write operations with long strings.

Affected products

  • Canonical Ubuntu Linux: version 10.04 only; version 12.04 only; version 12.10 only; version 13.10 only; version 14.04 only
  • Debian Debian Linux: version 6.0 only; version 7.0 only
  • F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager: from 11.3.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Analytics: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Application Acceleration Manager: from 11.4.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Application Security Manager: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Edge Gateway: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.3.0
  • F5 BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Link Controller: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Policy Enforcement Manager: from 11.3.0, up to and including 11.5.1
  • F5 BIG-IP Protocol Security Module: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.4.1
  • F5 BIG-IP WAN Optimization Manager: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.3.0
  • F5 BIG-IP Webaccelerator: from 11.1.0, up to and including 11.3.0
  • F5 BIG-IQ Application Delivery Controller: version 4.5.0 only
  • F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: version 4.6.0 only
  • F5 BIG-IQ Cloud: from 4.0.0, up to and including 4.5.0
  • F5 BIG-IQ Cloud And Orchestration: version 1.0.0 only
  • F5 BIG-IQ Device: from 4.2.0, up to and including 4.5.0
  • F5 BIG-IQ Security: from 4.0.0, up to and including 4.5.0
  • F5 Enterprise Manager: version 3.1.0 only; version 3.1.1 only
  • Linux Linux Kernel: after 2.6.31, before 3.2.59 (fixed in 3.2.59); from 3.3, before 3.4.91 (fixed in 3.4.91); from 3.5, before 3.10.40 (fixed in 3.10.40); from 3.11, before 3.12.20 (fixed in 3.12.20); from 3.13, before 3.14.4 (fixed in 3.14.4); version 2.6.31 only
  • Oracle Linux: version 6 only
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: version 6.0 only
  • and 5 more

Published 2014-05-07. Last modified 2026-06-17.